Nice : a diverse and coveted property market

Despite a market which has seen a downward adjustment in its prices, properties in Nice remain highly-prized by a wide array of clients. The town’s liveliness and quality living conditions explain its popularity, together with the diversity of its accommodation.

The largest town in the Alpes-Maritimes with close on 345,000 residents (second largest in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region), Nice is an active economic centre thanks especially to its buoyant tourist industry. Its position between sea and mountains, running along the Bay of Angels, is certainly very appealing, just like its busy cultural agenda and well-developed infrastructures (France’s third busiest airport, the tramway…). Not forgetting its long-established identity (its own language, cuisine…), unique on the Côte d’Azur. A lively agglomeration, great to live in, which also proposes very diverse accommodation.

“Although availabilities in Nice are relatively limited, they are very varied, which maintains strong and constant demand : the town attracts first-time buyers just as much as rental investors and foreigners looking for holiday homes,” says Alban Leloup, manager of Masséna Immobilier, an agency founded in 1977 and taken over in 2000. Handling sales, rentals, property management and “viagers”, mainly in the centre of Nice and on Mont Boron, it also covers the rest of the town and the Riviera shoreline. “Prices have seen a slight setback, though business is brisk as long as properties are proposed at fair market prices. Given the strong demand for rented accommodation, there is a lot of activity on the part of investors, for example. The same goes for “viagers”, a sector constantly on the rise.” As witnessed by Alban Leloup’s recent transaction involving an occupied “viager” requiring a down-payment of 87,000 € and annual payments of 9,600 € until the owner passes away. It consists of a 2-bedroomed apartment of almost 80 m2 in Cimiez, with a cellar and parking place, and a market value of 350,000 €. Among other recent sales : in a handsome building in the centre, a 3-bedroomed apartment of 110 m2 with a cellar, priced at 425,000 € ; and in a prestige residence in Cimiez, a 2-bedroomed apartment of 80 m2, at 378,000 €.

Backed by several years of experience on the property market in Milan, Barbara Pietra, founder of Cosmopolitan Real Estate, has been based in Nice’s “Golden Square” since 2003. “Here, the average price per sq. metre, which varies depending on the property’s condition, is about 6,000 €. You can thus expect to pay around 180,000 € for a studio, 300,000 € for a 1-bedroomed apartment, 500,000 € for a 2-bedroomed apartment, and 700,000 € for a 3-bedroomed apartment.” In this neighbourhood, demand mainly concerns holiday homes. “Buyers are mostly foreign - Canadians, Italians, Germans and Swiss -, with budgets of 350,000 € on average. They pay close attention to the classiness

of the building or residence - communal premises, care­taker... -, the view, the existence of an elevator, balcony or terrace.” A 1-bedroomed apartment in the “Golden Square”with a terrace and open view recently found a taker for 350,000 €, while a studio on the Promenade des Anglais sold for 220,000 €. “We occasionally also handle properties in neighbourhoods in Nice West : detached houses with pools and sea views cost around 1.2 M € there, with town houses pegged on average at about 700,000 €.” According to Barbara Pietra, prices declined by 5 to 10 % in 2014, though they are now much more stable.

The manager of Miramar Immobilier, an agency originally opened in 1981 in the Musiciens neighbourhood, Michel Tordo has been based since 1994 near the Port of Nice, on Boulevard Franck Pilatte. “The only agency in this highly residential area, we also cover Mont Boron and the neighbouring communes of Villefranche and Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Given the level of the prices here, our clientele is comprised of few local clients and no first time-buyers. It mainly consists of foreigners and French buyers from other regions - especially Paris and its surrounding area -, pre-retirees who do not usually need a mortgage to treat themselves to their pied-à-terre.” On this high-end market where demand outstrips supply, prices are holding up well, “on condition, however, that they are not over-valued. Some sellers are occasionally obliged to lower their prices so that they correspond to the rebalancing of the market we have seen over the past few years”. By way of example, Miramar Immobilier recently sold a fully renovated 2-bedroomed apartment of 100 m2 on the seafront for 790,000 €, a 3-bedroomed top-floor apartment of 90 m2 on Boulevard Franck Pilatte for 1.1 M €, and another top-floor apartment of over 75 m2, this time on the Lower Corniche, for 550,000 €. “As for houses, we recently handled the sale of two homes in the Franck Pilatte area : a villa in mint condition in 1,000 m2 of grounds, priced at 1,660,000 €, and a town house in need of restoration with a garden, pegged at 750,000 €.”